The project team developing the National Experimental Turbine (NExT), an initiative advanced with NETL support and oversight, has surpassed several key milestones as it builds a first-of-its-kind testing platform for manufacturing a new generation of higher-efficiency gas turbines.
Gas turbines play an important role in U.S. energy security and represent a critical technology for energy conversion, with broad uses for combined cycle power plants, aircraft propulsion, and backup power generation for renewable energy plants and hospitals. Technological strides in turbine development can have wide-reaching economic and environmental benefits. According to data presented at the 2019 American Society of Mechanical Engineers TurboExpo, a one-point U.S turbine efficiency improvement, in terms of carbon reduction, is equivalent to eliminating the emissions from 2 million cars.